The Supreme Court has given the green signal to the appeal made by the U.S. Department of Justice, approving a rule change that will empower the FBI with more hacking authority.
On April 28, the court approved the change in Rule 41 - the subject of much controversy and opposition - which will enable judges in the U.S. to issue search warrants to gain access to PCs that are situated in any jurisdiction. Previously, magistrates only had the authority to order searches within their court's jurisdiction, which was restricted to a handful of counties.
For the unfamiliar, Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure essentially controls the conditions in which a judge has the authority to issue a warrant for seizures and searches.
The rule change was pushed for by the U.S. DOJ since 2013, which asserts it is a minor modification that is necessary to update the criminal codes in the digital era.
The move will not go down well with civil liberties groups who advocate that the change will expand the FBI's abilities to carry out mass hackings on PC networks.
So, what changes now, you ask? Basically, with the rule change approved, a magistrate would be able to issue a warrant permitting the seizure or search of an electronic gadget in the event the target is deploying a software, like Tor, which is anonymous.
"Under the proposed rules, the government would now be able to obtain a single warrant to access and search thousands or millions of computers at once; and the vast majority of the affected computers would belong to the victims, not the perpetrators, of a cybercrime," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore), who condemned the decision.
Interestingly, while the FBI will have more hacking powers thanks to the rule change - there's a light at the end of the tunnel for those in opposition of the judgement. The Congress has the authority to modify or even reject the rule change.
It has time until Dec. 1 to make any amendments or discard the federal rules completely. In the event, the Congress does not take any action within this time window, the policy will come into effect by default.
Even though the Congress has the authority to veto amendments to policies governing federal courts, it seldom exercises the power. With the year ahead expected to be a heated one, thanks to the election, it is unlikely that the Congress will use its powers.
Photo: Brian Turner | Flickr
